NEITI: Confusion over unremitted NNPC Funds

The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, has urged the Nigerian government to recover over $21.8 billion (about N7.2 trillion) unremitted oil revenue from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

It said the recovery of the revenue would make it unnecessary for Nigeria to seek loans and other international funding assistance to jump-start its economic recovery.

In the latest edition of the NEITI Policy Brief unveiled recently in Abuja, Executive Secretary of the transparency agency, Waziri Adio, said findings from a series of its oil and gas sector audits revealed that the NNPC and its upstream subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, failed to remit over $21.78 billion and N316.1 billion to the Federation Account.

Mr. Adio said details of these unremitted funds, which NNPC has never disputed, were from federation asset divested to NPDC and its legacy liabilities; payments for domestic crude oil allocation to the NNPC, and dividends paid from investment in the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, but withheld by the NNPC.

According to him, details of these unremitted funds were part of the briefing he gave in a presentation to the National Economic Management team presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

“Considering the difficulties the government has been facingsecuring as little as $1billion foreign loan, recovering these funds will significantly enhance government’s fiscal position in the short term,” Mr. Adio said. However, NNPC has debunked the claim.

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